Chichibu 10 Years Old (50.5%)

Ichiro Akuto built Chichibu in 2008 in a landlocked basin in Saitama, carrying forward a distilling line that ran back through the lost Hanyu distillery. Production is small, around a third of a million litres a year, with floor malting done by hand on occasion and every stage run under one roof. Chichibu loses roughly three to five per cent of each cask a year to evaporation, near double the Scottish rate, so a young whisky here carries the depth of a much older one.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. At 10 years, old for a Chichibu, the long wood contact has built structure, ellagitannins giving a dry oak grip beneath the fruit. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut. Underneath the wood, the make keeps its clean, fruity core, green apple and stone fruit with a light floral edge.

This release was drawn from the distillery's own stock and bottled in 2020. It is a run of 5000 bottles. It is the kind of single cask that built the distillery's reputation among collectors in barely more than a decade. Bottled at 50.5%, natural colour and not chill filtered.